Kyoko Inoue

Kyoko Inoue was the founder of NEO and is a 22-year veteran of puroresu. She was also the first woman to hold a men’s championship in Japan, winning the WEW Tag Team Championship in FMW in 2000 with Kodo Fuyuki. She also won the WEW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship twice. On the joshi side, she competed for All-Japan Women from her debut in 1988 until 1997, when she left to start NEO. In the 1990s she became a All-Japan Women’s Triple Crown Champion by unifying the WWWA Championship, All-Pacific Championship and IWA Women’s Championship when she held them all simultaneously in January 1997, and is 2nd all-time in Wrestling Observer Newsletter 5 Star Matches among women with 4-only Manami Toyota has competed in more. She is a 3-time NEO Singles Champion and a 2-time NEO Tag Team Champion in addition to running the promotion, continuing to compete full-time save for a break in 2007 when she gave birth to a child. She also is well-known as part of a 90s tag team known as “Double Inoue(s)” she formed with Takako Inoue (they are not related). Ironically, it was Takako who was her opponent when Kyoko debuted in 1988.
Inoue announced on May 5, 2010 that she will be leaving NEO ahead of it shutting down on December 31, 2010. It was made official on May 14, 2010 and thus she is no longer with the promotion. Inoue competed as a freelancer until the start of 2011, when she announced she was creating a new promotion called Diana.